You are talking about one of the best trader ever. Most of his rules are still valid today. Lunatic trader : Not really, during his trading, he was focused and got a plan. But it is true he lived a life of luxury and was a miser at the same time : duplicity. He used to live in high society and at the same time was a lone wolf : duplicity. Huge concentrated bets : No, he used to trade several stocks at the same time. And he was a pioneer in money management : he was one of the first trader who pyramided cleverly his investments. Suicide in the end : Major problem for Livermore was not his trading but his personal life, a complete disaster. I recommend to read : Jesse Livermore : world's greatest stock trader. You can't dissociate forever your trading with your personal life. After all, Jesse Livermore was human and he wasn't able to trade well anymore after one of his son was imprisoned. CM
Ain't we all? I want my dessert too! And by dessert you meant living a quite long and successful, not to mention very rich, fulfilling life, right? --------------------- To answer the OP's question, he used doubletops and double bottoms. He called them pivot points, and the second one was the confirmation pivot. 100 years later still works.... I am actually surprised Hollywood hasn't discovered him as a story. There are just so many interesting things in his life, Leo, there is a role for you....
It does flesh our some details of his life, but it is not a well-written book. The author, Smitten, has a flare for drama and fabricated conversations out of thin air for "color." As far as Livermore's trading life was concerned, I think the annotated version of Reminiscences is better. The more recent Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger was also fairly good.
he was born in 1877 ! [my sources tell me things were a little different at the turn of the century] for example, insider pump & dump pools [i forget what they were called] were active - and legal, at least until after the 29 crash... although, i read that Livermore wasn't involved to any [large] degree with them Jesse seemed to be good at reading the bigger picture, as well as the smaller ones [some people just have a knack for certain things - some poker, for example] marc
Livermore has an inspiring trader story for the guy who starts trading with a small amount of capital. Start small, manage risk and learn to trade well. Too bad he took his own life-not good.
Anti-depressants would've saved his life, but they didn't exist. His "roller coaster ride" was such a strain and he probably had numerous NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS. When the body goes through intense long term stress the brains serotonin and GABA levels get depleted. Think about a male lion that tries numerous times to fight his way into taking control of an established pride, only to fail each time. His body would "signal" it's time to shut down or die. Shutting down (depression) is the body's way to survive intense failure! Yes, he came out ahead in dollars (someone said 5 mil.), but losing the majority of the fortune was probably a great failure to him.